


It Builds Character

by Jeredu



Category: Tales of the Abyss
Genre: 10 percent tasteful intimacy and 90 percent snark, AU: Winter Alchemist, Jade being Jade, M/M, Multi, No setting knowledge needed though, not explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-17
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 12:58:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11829231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeredu/pseuds/Jeredu
Summary: Peony should have suspected that it could never be simple when Jade was involved.In which Peony discovers a new kink he never knew he had... With some help, of course.





	It Builds Character

 

"Hey, Jade, have you seen- "

The words died on Peony's lips as he paused against the door frame, forgetting what he'd been about to say in the face of the scene before him.  

Jade barely shifted to glance at him, his fingers twitching to tangle themselves tighter in Jasper's short, dark hair, the other man's head nestled snugly between Jade's thighs.  

Peony swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. 

Jasper, to his credit, didn't so much as flinch at the (welcome) intrusion, his movements unhurried but focused.   Then again, the dark-haired man was already quite distracted, himself, from the look of it.  

Peony shifted awkwardly.  His loose clothing was a blessing, he mused, as he tried to remain still.  The mood felt almost like the delicate surface of a soap bubble, ready to break at the slightest disturbance.  He sucked in a shaky breath, deliberately moving to lean more obviously against the door frame - a resting position.  He wasn't going to leave, nor would he intrude.  He would watch.  

Jade seemed to accept this answer, his attention returning fully to his present engagement.  Not a word was exchanged.  The only noise in the room was their heavy breathing, accented by lewd sounds and the creak of the chair as Jade shifted his weight.  Peony noticed a slight tremor in Jade's left leg, likely from the strain of keeping it drawn up.  As though responding to the unspoken question, Jasper's right hand came up to support the leg, stroking a path up Jade's outer thigh until his fingers settled between the brace and the fabric of the trousers beneath. Jasper gently lifted the leg to hook it over his shoulder, and Jade's eyes drifted shut, his head tipping back against the padded back of the wheelchair. 

'Whatever happened to House Rule #3?' Peony thought to himself, more amused than anything. 

\---

Peony should have suspected that it could never be _simple_ when Jade was involved. For all that Jade was the one visibly reining himself back in, all mathematically precise, deep, slow breaths; Jade was utterly in charge of this situation and they knew it.  

Peony wondered if he should be afraid as Jade's eyes pointedly rake over him, followed by the soft murmur of, " _Interesting_."   The word stretched like taffy from Jade's lips, savored in a way that never meant anything good for anyone who _wasn't_ Jade Curtiss. 

Peony couldn't help but grin.  "Uh oh," he drawled, the two syllables dripping with implications. 

"You wound me," Jade retorted in the falsest of affected dismay.  "I was merely observing the... _vigorous_ response to very particular stimuli."  

Peony definitely didn't choke.  "I'm pretty sure anyone would respond to _that_."

But Jade was looking at him like he'd just put the final nail in his own coffin, pleased at having been spared the trouble.  "But you're so worked up that it might as well have been _you_ in this chair." 

There was now a wicked glint in Jade's eyes, and Peony shifted awkwardly.  This conversation had done nothing to alleviate the issue of its own thrice-damned centerpiece. 

Jasper had gathered himself enough grin up at them and ask, "You tapping out, Jade?" 

"Yes," Jade replied, and he had the audacity to add, "I can't keep up with you youngsters. One round is plenty."

Peony had to pause for a moment and guffaw at the sheer _ridiculousness_ of that statement.  "Excuse you," he retorted over the background of Jasper's own chuckling. 

"I'm pretty sure the old man card only works when you're _actually_ older than the rest of us," Jasper added, shoulders still shaking with quiet mirth. 

Jade shrugged, his placid poker face solidly in place.  "I'm an old soul, I've been told." 

Peony snorted, unimpressed. "Hey, whatever excuse you want; consider me tagged in." 

Jasper's laughter swelled in a soft crescendo. "So it's a relay race, now?"

 "Or a duel," Jade quipped, always ready to yank the mood sideways and morbid, just for fun. 

Peony took this in stride, as always.  "Jasper has us on the ropes, in that case." He decided to cut his losses here and rose to join them.

"What a sorry state of affairs," Jade scoffed, shaking his head,  "leaving _you_ to avenge me."

Peony smirked.  "A **_little death_** just builds character, right?"

Jasper was in stitches.  That one actually drew an appreciative smirk from Jade.  Well played.

"Well," Jasper wheezed, "if the mood isn't utterly destroyed, I believe I was about to take on a new challenger...?" 

Peony didn't need to be asked twice. 

\----

Once Peony's head was capable of forming complete, coherent thoughts, he dragged himself into some semblance of order and fixed Jade with an accusatory glare.  The glare would've been much more effective, he liked to think, had Peony not been struggling to hide his own amusement.

"...You planned this."

"You're imagining things, I'm sure," Jade sighed in a carefully pitched affectation of boredom, but Peony knew better.

"You _planned_  this, you shit," Peony repeated with a grin. "God, no wonder some people are scared of you. I'd hate to have you for an _enemy_. You figured out what I was thinking before _I_ did.  What the actual hell."

Jade shrugged, giving Peony an irritatingly placid smile.  "It's what I do."

**Author's Note:**

> Jasper Cadogan is a character exclusive to a Jade-centric manga spinoff, if you were wondering.


End file.
